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This year I am remembering the six members of the BOXALL family recorded on the war memorial in the parish church at West Dean (near Chichester), Sussex.

Alfred BOXALL’s death was recorded in the local newspaper the West Sussex Gazette on the 6th May 1915:

BOXALL.- Killed in action at Neuve Chapelle, Alfred, 2nd Royal Berks Regt., third son of the late George and Rose Boxall, of West Dean, Chichester, age 33.

This contains the useful information that Alfred was the son of George and Rose BOXALL and was aged 33. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission also records these facts and provides his date of death as the 15th March 1915, along with some additional details of his military service:

Son of the late George and Rose Boxall, of 99, West Dean, Chichester. Served in the South African Campaign, and in India.

Unfortunately the service record for Alfred BOXALL doesn’t appear to have survived, but Soldiers Died in the Great War provides the fact that he enlisted at Chichester, Sussex which makes sense for a man from West Dean. The mention of service in the South African Campaign and India and his relatively early date of death, suggests that he had enlisted well before the outbreak of the First World War.

In the 1911 census we discover that Alfred was serving with the 1st Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment in Rawalpindi, Punjab, India. I have been unable to find Alfred in the 1901 census, which suggests that he may well have been serving in South Africa at the time. His medal index card records that as well as the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, Alfred was also awarded the 1914 Star, his qualification being entry into the theatre of war on the 6th November 1914.

Alfred was baptised Alfred Wilton BOXALL at St. Andrew’s Church, West Dean on the 1st October 1882, he was actually the fourth son of George and Rosa BOXALL, although the suggestion that he was the third son is not that far from the truth because one Alfred’s elder brothers died aged four years old, so he was actually the third surviving son.

As well as West Dean war memorial Alfred BOXALL is remembered on Le Touret Memorial in France.